Let's Play
by PinkieKing
Summary: *ON HIATUS* A normal L4D2 co-op between famous youtubers PewDiePie and Cry takes a turn for the worse when they find themselves immersed into the game's world. The duo must try to survive this world they know "so well", but will they ever be able to make it back home? What will happen when they are forced to face the question: If you die in the game, do you die in real life?
1. Wake Up Call

**Quick note:**** I seriously apologize for doing nothing in this chapter. It'll pick up and I'll be less descriptive. I promise ;-; **

**On that note, as much as I wish I owned Cry and Pewdie, they're kind of people, and that would be slavery. Slavery is a no-no. Valve owns L4D2, though I have a copy of the game! **

**Okay, reading time. **

* * *

_Beep boo bee boop._

It was the sound of an incoming Skype call that woke me up. I rolled over, managing to entwine myself further in the already tangled mass of blankets, and looked towards the clock. It was too blurry to read the analog display, so I brought up a hand to rub at my eyes. Still blurry. Then I suddenly remembered why.

"Contacts," I hissed.

_Beep boo bee boop._

I twisted my body in an attempt to free myself from the covers and damn near fell out of the bed. I wound up sliding awkwardly down the side of the bed head first until I was in a very awkward headstand. The blankets still trapped my legs in their linen-y grasp.

_Beep boo bee boop._

I kicked and squirmed, and finally released my legs from the blankets. However, the covers were the only things restricting gravity from taking full effect on me, and I slid the rest of the way to the floor, landing on my back with a jarring "Oof!"

I still needed to put in my contacts, if only to see the name of who was calling, but decided it could wait until I'd taken the call and yelled a great mix of "sir," "friend," and various curse words for waking me up after a stream. Sundays are no-wakey-Cry day.

_Beep boo bee boop._

I pulled myself off the floor and stumbled to my desk, practically collapsing into the chair. I found myself cursing my preference of desktop over laptop, not for the first time in my life. A push of the monitor's power button sent a steady glow of blinding white into the room.

I clenched my eyes shut, covering them with my right hand for extra protection from the harsh light. "Okay, ow," I breathed, my voice thick with sleep. I managed to get one eye open, barely squinting, and moved my hand away from my face to grab my mouse. My left hand moved to take its place, choosing a spot above my eyes, though, so I could still see. Well, see fuzzy shapes at least.

_Beep boo bee boop._

"Yeah yeah, I hear you already," I murmured to the beeping program. My cursor hovered over the 'answer' button and, clearing the sleep from my throat, I clicked it.

"Heh heh heyy Cry!" Pewdiepie's cheerful, nearly chuckling greet filled the room. It was obvious who it was, despite my covered eyes, from the moderate Swedish accent and freakishly high level of spirit; Though to be fair, he probably hadn't just been woken up by obnoxious beeping, forced to wrestle with a mound of blankets (or lost against them, for that matter), and/or attacked by blinding light.

"Hey Pewds," I greeted. "Ah..God. Not the best wake up call, friend." I removed the hand from above my eyes and squinted lightly from the loss of shade, though my eyes were more or less used to the invading light at that point.

Pewdie fell silent for a moment and looked at me.

I decided to fill the silence. "Something wrong?"

"Y-Your… mask. It isn't…" he stammered before trailing off.

This time it was my turn to fall silent. I slowly spun my chair around. _Oh_,I thought to myself. _So that was why I had peripheral vision_.

"Shit," I spat. Then, over my shoulder I snapped, "Again, _not _the best wake up call!" I stood up from my chair and took a step towards the nightstand where my plain, white, pokerface-esque mask lie, but stopped. With an aggravated sigh, I turned back around and sat again, resting my forehead in my hands. "Well, the cat's sort of out of the bag, so there's really no point in wearing it now," I muttered. When I looked on the screen, I saw a blurry Pewds raising a questioning eyebrow at me.

The blob that was his head shook from right to left slowly. "I'm sorry about that, Cry. I was just calling to see if you wanted to play some Left 4 Dead 2 later. I finally found a map that seems to work."

"You mean you want to shoot up some zambies?" I pulled my lips into a smirk, even though I was still a little upset. "I'm there."

"Yay, zambies!" Pewdie did a little 'woo' in a falsetto voice before another silence settled upon us. I could tell he was in shock from getting this secret unexpectedly revealed to him.

It was actually a little relieving in a way, to have _someone_ discover my secret. It had been so long since Scott, Russ, Red, and Snake had somehow seen me without the mask, that all of the excitement that came with seeing them face to face was gone. I decided to milk this opportunity a little. "So, what do you think?" I asked, motioning slightly to my revealed face.

"I thought you had glasses," he said hurriedly, like he'd wanted to ask me about it but didn't know if it would upset me.

"Contacts," I replied with a small nod. "I got them last week. Still need to put them on, though. You kind of just woke me up."

"Aw, seriously? I'm sorry, man, I didn't realize…" A pause. "Isn't it like 4 in the afternoon over there?"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I can't see the clock display. I was a little busy fighting my bed anyway." I scooted to the side to give him a clear view of my bed in all of its half-hanging-off pile of twisted covers glory. "Plus I had a livestream, so I was up 'til about seven this morning."

"Right, I guess it is Sunday. Gah, I'm sorry 'bout that, bro."

"Ah, don't worry about it, Pewds. Just give me a few minutes to get ready and we can kick some zambie butt. You can stay on the call if you want."

"Alrighty, I'll set up my own stuff while you get yourself ready." Even though the computer screen was blurred, I could still see the big grin he flashed me. I returned it with another smirk.

"Alright, friend."

With that, I stood again and made my way to the bathroom connected to my room. I strode to the sink and splashed some freezing water on my face. _If I wasn't awake before, now I am, _I thought as I blindly reached for a towel to dry my face with. Fresh contacts went from their saline solution to my eyes, and I blinked once, twice, while the world snapped into crystal clarity.

"I can see!" I whooped. I heard a chuckle from the next room as I turned to walk back into the bedroom. "Alriiight, time to get out of these pajamas." I turned towards my computer and put on a mocking sultry expression. "You can watch if you want."

I held a straight face for _maybe _3 seconds, and my friend fared even worse than I. For a split second he had looked like I had slapped him in the face with a fish, but then he launched into a fit of hiccupping giggles and light snorts. I started laughing too, starting with a restrained "pffft," and growing into a full-blown laughing attack until I was left doubled over and breathless.

"Oh God my siiiiides," I coughed lightly as I unfolded myself.

I opened my eyes, which had been clenched shut from the crippling laughter, and saw Marzia leaning into the Skype window.

"Don't you be trying to steal my boyfriend now, mister," she teased in her heavy Italian accent. A small smile played across her petite features and I giggled again.

"I make no promises," I choked through my constricted throat. Then, with a shake of my head, "Kidding. Love ya, Marzia," I pointed at her with both of my index fingers, my thumbs facing up towards the ceiling, and from across the room I saw her smile grow. She connected her thumbs and index fingers, made a heart symbol back at me before placing a kiss on Felix's forehead and exiting the frame.

I gathered my clothes from the dresser beside the bathroom door and turned to pad off into the bathroom again to change when I heard Pewdie clear his throat.

"I think you're forgetting something," he said. I glanced over my shoulder to and he nodded towards my nightstand. I changed the direction of my gaze to look over there.

"Wha.. My mask? I told you I'm not wearing it. Actually, I'm surprised Marzia didn't have a fit—"

"No." He nodded again. "You might want to check what time it is."

I shot him a slightly confused look before walking over to pick up the small clock.

9:04 AM

"Dick," I muttered as I heard the uproar of laughter begin behind me. I turned around as he started clapping like a blonde-haired, blue-eyed seal. Into the bathroom I went, slamming the door behind me. Was I mad? Not particularly. Was I tired? You bet. I emerged with a fresh navy hoodie and gray jeans. Pewdie was still riding out the final giggles of the joke.

"Yeah, you enjoyed that one didn't you?" I muttered with an eye roll when I took my seat. "I got two hours of sleep, you know? Everyone's going to think I'm drunk, as usual."

"Sorry, Cry. I had to. I really didn't mean to wake you up, I just got the time zones mixed up and I somehow forgot it was Sunday—a real genius Pewdie moment if you ask me. But your face was just _priceless_, especially since I could actually see it for once. Oh! That reminds me; I never actually got to tell you my opinion on how you look without the mask!"

I winced, looking away from the screen. "Please, don't do that, friend." Despite knowing he'd only have good things to say—he was a nice guy; there was no way he'd insult me over such a sensitive topic. Or ever, really. I just didn't want to hear the same speech I'd earned from the few other who stumbled upon me without my mask.

He cocked his head to the side. "Why not?"

"I just don—"

"Cry." I looked back to Pewdie's digital face. "You look great. Definitely different from how I pictured you, but really great." He pulled his best pedophile face, and in his classic Piggeh voice, added "Awwww yeeeaahhh."

Needless to say I fell out of my chair with laughter.

Really. Only he would ruin a bro moment for something like that.

"Alright bro," I heard him say from the desk above my fallen figure. "You ready to kick some zambie booty?"

"Let's do this, friend!"

* * *

**A/N:**

**Yayayayaya chapter 1. Alrighty folks, strap yourselves up. You're in for the long haul. Again, sorry for doing nothing in this chapter. Merp. **

**Don't expect daily updates. I can't do this shiz every day. But I'll see ya soon.**


	2. Kiddieland

"You mean you actually found a map that didn't bug out?" I asked in disbelief as I adjusted my headset. "Not that the incapacitated bug wasn't funny as hell—because it was. It's just that there are, like, _no _decent custom maps."

Pewdie held up a hand. "I, Felix Kjellberg, do solemnly swear that this map has no error ladders, crazy sliding incapacima-potato bugs, or other such nonsense."

A giggle escaped my lips. "Sounds good to me, friend. Let's do this!"

There was a faint 'click' from his end, and then wewere recording; no facecam on my side, as always.

"How's it goin' bros? My name.. is _Peeewdiepie!_ And over somewhere in the outer United Space is my buddy, my pal, my brofriend, Cry."

Brofriend. I chuckled lightly. That was a new one. "Hi," I said into my mic with a stifled yawn.

It was actually a really great map, unlike the ones I'd been casually browsing through on my off time. The ones that looked like they'd been shoddily thrown together, based loosely off of aliens or something that should never be combined with a zombie apocalypse.

This was a like a spinoff of Dark Carnival, the second campaign in Left 4 Dead 2.

Except this was solely based around Kiddieland.

"_Holy shit… It's KIDDIELAND!" _screamed Ellis in-game as we started the game.

"You don't say.." I muttered lightheartedly.

The mini park was expanded greatly for the purposes of this map, yet it was still believable in its size. It wasn't an entire amusement park big, but it wasn't the tiny ring of rides Dark Carnival had depicted it as.

"Safe room?" Pewdie crowed. He reminded me of a parrot, walking to a random part of the road and calling the same two words over and over. He even cocked his head to the side a little when he said it, giving him an even closer resemblance to the bird.

The way the campaign dealt with the size restrictions was pretty clever. Safe rooms weren't clearly marked. Instead, there would be a riddle or a few vague directions scribbled on a wall in easily-spotted places. The answer usually led us towards the safe room. Usually being the key word.

On the second stage of the map, the creator had decided to have a little fun. We followed the directions, and were led straight into a "crescendo event" that involved a log plume ride and some colorful complaints from Nick. We died the first time thanks to a lack of help from the AI's while Ellis and Nick (Pewdie and mine's characters, respectively) were ridden by a Jockey and pummeled by a Charger. The second time we had a little more luck, and were able to make it through.

At the very end of the ride, there was a small bridge. We ducked under it, hoping to find the safe room, since Pewdie was on black and white health. We were instead met with a big cement wall and one word scrawled in the middle of it in yellow spray paint.

_OOPS._

"Aw— Awwww come on." Pewdie sat back and pouted, releasing his keyboard to grip the sides of his face dramatically.

I turned my character around, confused about where to go from there. _Oops? What, did they never finish the map? _ More writing caught my eye. There, following the arc on the back of the bridge.

_Somewhere over the rainbow_

Rainbow? Oh wait, there was more text beneath it.

_Twists and turns, part of my master plan. But you'll find the safe room back where you began._

No way. _No way. _The next safe room could not seriously be...

"Pewds?"

He released his face, leaning forward again into the mic. "Huh?"

"Didn't you play this map already?"

He adopted a sheepish smile and looked away from the screen.

"_Pewds._"

"I—Well, I kinda never made it past this part." His cheeks flushed red, obviously out of embarrassment, before he adopted a completely different expression, seeming to sense my slight annoyance. His eyes grew wide and he brought up both hands defensively. "It was the bots though! They are no help at all. You saw it just a minute ago!"

"Yeah. I did. But do you see what this says? It says we need to go _back where we began_. We need to go _back to the safe room."_

"Oh." His hands dropped.

"Yeah, oh." I shoved his players with my shotgun. "Come on." I ducked Nick under the bridge again and we set back out to retrace our steps.

We played almost the entire rest of the campaign without incident. Or rather, as without incident as it could with Pewdiepie as my co-op partner. Sure, he'd gotten better at the game since our first attempt, but…

Well, not _that _much better.

"CRY!" Pewdie screamed as we neared the final safehouse. I jumped about an inch in my chair as the sound nearly deafened me.

"R.I.P. headphone users," I mumbled as I gathered my bearings, now understanding why it was the top comment on so many of his videos. God, that kid had a set of lungs.

"Smoker! Smokey! Smokamapopolus CRYYYYYY!"

I turned around and shot at the boil-covered animation that was dragging my friend's character away. It erupted in a cloud of green smoke.

"Thanks Cry," Pewdie said, his character running up to me.

"No problem, friend," I replied. I began to turn back around, but as the smoke began to settle, I caught the flash of a bright color. Normally the only bright color I'd see in the gloomy setting of the game would be the noxious glowing green of a Spitter's acid or the bright orange of a Witch's eyes. This, however, was purple. I ran over to see what it was.

A simple purple key sat plainly on the edge of the bleacher—the finale took place in a baseball diamond. It was pretty big for a key, just like you'd expect in a video fame, and it shone dully. I vaguely wondered if it were meant to be picked up. Perhaps it was needed for the end of the campaign.

I decided I'd try to pick it up, but found I couldn't bring myself to press the button. I was nervous about it. I couldn't exactly be sure why, but it just… felt weird.

By the time I'd calmed my strangely jangled nerves enough to pick up the key, Pewdie's character was already beside mine.

"Yoink!" he exclaimed, and just like that, the key was gone. I released a slightly shaky breath. "You alright Cry?" Good question. "I got the key. C'mon!" He ran back down the bleachers as I inhaled again, and a new wave of zombies hit us. I began to turn, but noticed a small message on the bleacher, exactly where the key had been.

_"The helicopter! We're saved!" _one of the bots yelled.

Thinking quickly, I took a screenshot of the image and turned to run like hell for the chopper.

I hopped on and sighed with relief as Pewdie's whooping cheers rang in my headphones.

"Alright bros—" he stopped as both of our screens flashed a brilliant purple and went black. They stayed that way for a moment, and I grew anxious, praying the map hadn't harmed my computer.

"Pewds, what did you do to my computer?" I asked levelly.

"I don't! No! Don't blame—" he was cut off again as our monitors flashed to our desktops again. "See? It's fine."

"Sure. Alright. We still recording?"

"Yeah. Alright bros, we're gonna end this episode here. I'll see ya next time on whatever I make. Say bye, Cry!"

"Hm? Bye," I mumbled through my bottom lip, which was being worked over by my teeth at the time.

"Haha, alright. Mmbyeee." He brofisted the camera, and turned off the recording. "That really was a great game, Cry. Thanks so much for playing with me."

"Mmhmm."

"You okay , Cry? You're a little… distant."

I snapped into reality again. "What? Oh! Yeah, I'm cool. It's just…" I was hesitant about bringing up that key. Why? "That key," I finally forced myself to say. "It made me feel, I guess a little uneasy."

"Oh, don't be silly, Cry. It's a video game! A custom map, no less. People have put weirder shit in there than a key."

He was right, and I knew it. Yet the feeling couldn't be shaken. "Ha, yeah. I guess you're right, Pewds. Thanks."

"I'll see you later, Cry."

"See ya, friend."

Then I was alone. My legs trembled slightly as I stood up and stretched, but I figured it was just from sitting for so long. I began to pace back and forth, just as I always did in situations that required intense thinking.

That key. What was it for? Why was it there? It hadn't appeared to serve a purpose. Why had our screens gone purple? Was that what it was for? Some random easter egg to make the screen purple? If so, that was the lamest easter egg I'd ever seen.

Which meant that probably wasn't its purpose.

So what was?

I stopped. _The message. _

I sat down at my computer again and opened up my Clipboard. Sure enough, there was the screenshot I'd taken moments before, sitting innocently and alone in the otherwise empty space. I felt a cold shiver run down my spine as I opened the picture. The font was small, as it had been fit snugly under the key, but it was legible. I squinted and read, a small whimper escaped my lips as I did so.

_The key opens doors that should remain locked._

* * *

**A/N: God, sorry it's so short. I feel like it's lacking, too. My teacher told me not to put anything in that didn't further the plot. Guess I was a little guilty of fattening up my first chapter, huh? Hehe.. he. **

**Anywho. I'M SORRY THEY AREN'T IN EVIL LAND YET. Next chapter. Right? I had to do this. I had to get _something _up. It's 11pm- late for me on a school night- but I had to write something. **

**Hope you enjoyed. **


	3. Migraine

**A/N: **

**This is the sorriest, most pathetic excuse for a chapter I've ever written. Dear Castiel, save me now. I will most likely end up re-writing this entire chapter (lol who am I kidding. Ain't nobody got time for that), but here's this for you to laugh at. **

**I'm seriously like sick with myself for this awful writing, but I was taking too long up update and I knew it. So. Bleh. Here. Sorry. **

**At least there's some story progression. **

* * *

I awoke to complete darkness and a pounding headache. Sputtering a not-so-silent curse at the rude awakening I lifted a hand to my right temple, trying uselessly to dull the claw-like threads of pain tearing at my brain. Well, at least it was nice and dark.

I sighed sharply and sat up, hoping to alleviate some of the pressure in my head. Headaches weren't uncommon for me, likely because of the amount of time I spent in front a computer each day, but this pain was unlike any other headache I'd ever had. It was like Godzilla was tap dancing on the right side of my skull. As hesitant as I was to admit it, this had to be a migraine.

Another wave of pain tore at the back of my eyes. Aspirin. I needed aspirin.

With a grunt, I heaved myself to a standing position, steadying myself against the rough wooden wall as the minimal blood in my head escaped to the rest of my body.

Whoa, no wait. Back it up a step or two.

Since when was my bedroom wall made of exposed wood?

And since when did I sleep on the floor?

I stretched out the arm that I wasn't using to keep myself upright, feeling down the sides of the wall. My fingers made contact with a sort of fabric and twitched reflexively away from the new material. What were my sheets doing floating in the air?

Yeah, no. I'd definitely be willing to say this was not my room.

I spun around, this time in search of a door, and face-planted into another wall. Bright white and red flashed in my eyes and the pain in my head somehow grew worse. Oh God, what the hell? Wherever I was, it was tiny.

With one arm I nursed my intensifying migraine, while with the other I stretched and felt around for a doorknob. The room was indeed small. Very small. There was some sort of fabric in the middle, with another wall right behind it. Finally my hand found purchase on a cool metal, which I twisted eagerly.

Of course it was fucking locked.

I groaned and slumped forward, just stopping my head just shy of the wall to avoid the pain of another impact_. _

_C'mon Cry, think. You probably got drunk last night. Where did you go?_

That was when I heard it. Or rather, them. Voices. They were muffled from the distance and plaster between us, but they were definitely there.

"Hellooo?" I pounded a fist against the door, wincing from the volume of my own voice. Between shouting and smacking my face against a wall, I was not helping my head. No sir.

The voices immediately stopped, and I held my breath, though why I did I wasn't really sure.

Maybe that was why I jumped so high when something flung itself upon the door from the other side. My ear had been against the door while I waited to hear those voices again, so when something suddenly pounded upon the door with a high shriek, I shot backwards, falling through the fabric suspended in the middle of the boxy room and landing hard on my back. My head bounced off the hardwood floor with a solid _thunk, _making me let loose a string of colorful curse words.

Shrill screams and clawing sounds came from behind the door. They seemed hauntingly familiar, like I'd heard them in a dream. I covered my ears and continued my swearing, wanting both the screams and the attempts at thinking hard about something to disappear into the sound of my own voice buzzing inside my head.

I didn't hear the shrieks stop. I only knew the door was open because of the light that suddenly flooded into the previously black room. My hands reflexively moved from my ears to cover my eyes as I curled into a ball, trying to shrink away from the light.

I sensed a shadow falling across my figure, and it was then that an all-too-familiar voice decided to ask, "Are yew alive?"

"Idiot. Of course he's alive!" Another voice I recognized snapped. "Have you ever heard a zombie swear like that? Please, do tell me if you have, because—"

No. Fucking. Way.

"_Ellis? Nick?" _I asked without thinking. Though in my defense, thinking would have been very hard at that moment, considering my head felt like it was being shredded, set on fire, and hacked at with a rusty blade _all at once. _

I knew I was right when the voice went silent. I heard Nick suck in a breath as he prepared to say something, but the first voice, the one that most definitely belonged to Ellis, interrupted him, "Yep. He's fine." Heavy footsteps stomped across the floor and I felt an arm slipped around my waist. "Up and at 'em," Ellis said as he hauled me to my feet.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I opened my eyes.

And there in front of me were, surrounded by a halo of harsh white light, were three of the four main characters from L4D2, in the flesh. Ellis was the exception, standing at my side to catch me if I suddenly pitched over.

I felt my eyes go wide with surprise, ignoring their protests against the light. "Holy shit, I must still be drunk," I mumbled, despite having no recollection of ever drinking last night.

Ellis laughed at this and clapped a hand on my shoulder, completely unfazed by the sight of another Survivor, let alone one who knew him by name. Rochelle and Coach both stood out in what was apparently a hallway, and Nick was looking at me with a cross between confusion and suspicion.

But before I could do so much as look around at the room that had been my holding cell for a few brief moments, a fifth head appeared in the doorway beside Nick.

"_Pewds?" _

"Cry!" the Swede bear-hugged me. "Wow, you know I've never gotten to give you a real bro hug before. I thought you'd be taller… But this is awesome!"

"Awesome?" I manage to ask. "How is this awesome? Where _are _we? Why are there vid-" I stop myself short. Calling them video game characters to their face would end badly. Not sure how, I just had the feeling it would. Call it intuition, I just knew to listen to my gut. I dropped my voice to a whisper. "What are _they _doing here?"

Pewds stepped back and lowered his voice to what I supposed was supposed to be a whisper too, but his voice carried, and they could likely hear what he said anyway. "Dude. We're in Left 4 Dead 2! Seriously! I just had to go through a horde of zambies to get in here! This is _so cool!_" He gestured towards the door to the small room, where a single corpse lay.

"Yeah, some horde," I teased to mask my disbelief at the situation.

We were in Left 4 Dead 2? Like, in the _game? _The _video game?_ No way. Either it was an elaborate joke, or something happened. Something I couldn't remember. _Why can't I remember last night? _

"Say Cry, you know it's about time you came out of the closet," Pewds said and wiggled his eyebrows.

"What." It wasn't even a question. I just deadpanned it—what the hell did he mean by that?

I took a moment to finally examine the room. It only took one glance over my shoulder to notice that the fabric in the middle of the room was, in fact, a bunch of coats hanging on a bar.

"Oh ha ha, you're so clever." I rolled my eyes. "You do realize we're both still standing in here, right?" I asked, turning back to my friend.

Nick snorted from the doorway. "Don't forget about Overalls over there," nodding towards the third man standing in the tiny closet. Wait, how did the three of us even fit in here?

"Hey, yew don't get to speak. You're in the doorway," Ellis retorted with a slight smirk.

Wow, so even in the zombie apocalypse we were as immature as humanly possibly.

Apparently Rochelle was thinking about nearly the same thing, as she suddenly yelled, "Can we stop with the gay jokes?"

"Sorry," Ellis said with a sheepish smile. Nick just shook his head and slid a cigarette from his jacket pocket.

"So son," Coach bellowed with both a step and a nod in my direction. "Would you like to tell me how you knew our friends' names over here?"

Oh. Right. That.

Fuck.

"Um…"

* * *

**A/N:**

**Was going to write farther.  
Decided I wanted a cliffy. Again.  
I'm a bitch. xD**


	4. Screams

**A/N: This is too short to count as a legitimate chapter. I'll have the next one up either tonight or tomorrow. Promise. (UPDATE: I'm so sorry, I ave to break my promise! I left my iPod, where the entire rest of the chapter was typed up, at my friend's house. Dunno when I'll get it back- within the next couple days, I'd hope.)**

**Edit: OH GOD I didn't even realize until I was rereading this that coach interrupted his own question xD Fail. Sorry. Now Nick starts off this chapter. there ya go. **

* * *

"I'm afraid this kid's explanation will have to wait, folks," Nick cut in. I sighed heavily with relief, but that relief was short-lived. "Hear that?"

As if on cue, a long, low growl drifted from somewhere in the house. Or what I thought was a house, at least. It had a closet, so my guess couldn't be too far off. The growl rang lightly in my head after it ended; reminding me of the blazing migraine I still had (as if I could forget).

"Hunter," Ellis stated, as though the clarification was needed. He pulled his axe off his back and stepped forward, joining the rest of his group in the narrow hallway. Pewds and I stayed where we were, mostly because we were completely empty-handed. Nick grasped a pistol in each hand, Rochelle held a shotgun at the ready, and Coach had a Magnum, which seemed laughably small in his meaty hands. Then there was Ellis, his axe positioned like a baseball bat beside his head.

"You're using an axe against a Hunter?" Pewds asked with a nod towards Ellis. "Would've thought you'd be using your trusty Desert Eagle." The Swede chuckled and I ground my teeth a little. I caught Nick narrowing his eyes towards Pewds.

"How'd you know—" the conman began, but I cut him off, knowing exactly where the question was headed.

"We've met a lot of his type along the way." I gave Nick a little smile, and he turned his glare on me. Another growl floated through the air, and he reluctantly focused once again on the task at hand. I exhaled slowly through my nose and shot a warning look at my friend. He pulled his lips into a small frown. _Oops, _he mouthed. My glare hardened, though I knew I was just as guilty as he was, if not more. Hell, I _was_ guiltier than Pewds was. I'd called people I supposedly didn't know by name. At least his little slip could be covered with an excuse, albeit a flimsy one.

Pewds turned away from me, his frown deepening, and a pang of guilt hit my stomach. He didn't deserve that. It was an accident, just like mine had been.

The thoughts weren't given a chance to linger, as another wave of pain tore across my throbbing brain. I squeezed my eyes shut and ground my teeth in pain.

Everything was thankfully silent for a moment, and I dared to open my eyes. Coach had shuffled down the hall a little, being at the front of the line the Survivors had made in the hall. Rochelle followed closely behind him, but Ellis and Nick hovered in view of the doorway, whether to keep us protected or to make sure we didn't run I wasn't quite sure. Their eyes, however, never left the end of the hall.

Ellis suddenly turned his head toward my friend, though he still refused to peel his eyes from the area down the hall. "Ah emptied all my ammo into a Tank's head a little ways back," he explained. "S'why I'm stuck with the axe." My friend nodded beside me and everything once again slipped into silence.

Then there was the scream.

It was nothing like the scream in the game. Well, it was. It was the same basic sound, but in the game, it's so flat. It's just a weird, high-pitched shriek. In reality, though... Oh God.

The scream was all around me, its sound ripping into thirty different pitches, clashing horribly as each pitch moved and trembled. It lingered in the air longer than it would in-game. Why? Why this horrible noise for so long?

I could barely hear the yells from the other Survivors, even as the scream ended. My mind was jumbled, my vision blurring and reddening at the edges. After what could only have been a few seconds, the awful noise returned without mercy. It ground at my eardrums, and I felt myself screaming too. My knees met the floor, and everything went black.

* * *

**A/N: **

**Oh snap. . **

**Y'know, I never feel satisfied with my writing. I feel like I could add more, or word something differently. I feel like all my characters are so OOC it isn't even funny. **

**Is that feeling justified? I need to know. **


	5. Questions

**A/N: WTF IS THIS? Didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. Have to apologize to myself for that, as I get extremely frustrated and self-hateful over my writing. **

* * *

_PewDiePie's POV_

We were playing the waiting game with a zombie. No joke.

The growling had subsided, but we all knew the Hunter wasn't gone. The occasional "click click" of its sharpened nails on the hardwood floor gave away its presence. Our group remained frozen, waiting with bated breath and weapons at the ready for the zombie to show itself. No one spoke. We scarcely breathed. Everyone was just waiting.

When the scream—that awful, double-timbre scream—shattered the silence, I wasn't ready. It was like when you wait for toast to pop out of the toaster. We'd all been waiting for it, expecting it, but when it actually came, I jumped high enough for my head to knock into the metal bar in the closet. "Aj! Skit, sluta!"

Adrenaline flooded my system as the initial scare wore off and the Hunter's screech trailed off into another low growl. "Jävla," I breathed as I nursed the bump sprouting on my head.

"It's at the end of the hall!" Coach boomed.

Another ear-splitting scream filled the air, joined by a chilling human yowl. Oh God, did it pounce someone? A single shot rang out—Rochelle's shotgun, if I had to guess—and Cry slumped to the floor without warning. I didn't even get a chance to catch him before his head connected sharply with the floor. The Hunter's screech was cut short by the shot, replaced by a pathetic yelp and a heavy thud. All was silent once more.

"Cry!" I turned and dropped to my knees beside my unconscious friend. My hands reached out to touch him, but I drew them back again. What if I hurt him? It was a stupid thought, but it kept my hands plastered to my side anyway.

Rochelle wormed her way through the three males that had gathered uselessly in the doorway and sat beside me. Her eyes swept slowly across Cry's body and she reached a hand out. I almost stopped her, but the movements were so sure. She probably wouldn't hurt him.

"What's wrong with him?" I heard myself ask.

Rochelle clicked her tongue. "Hell if I know." I sent a glare her way, which she returned with an apologetic smile. "Sorry." She paused. "Well, I think the best thing we can do for him right now is get him somewhere safe. We just left a safe room a block or two down the street. We can go back there. Wouldn't be any use trying to push to the next one with him unconscious and you weaponless."

I nodded tightly and scooped my friend up, holding him bridal style. It was kind of funny, really. The first physical contact I'd had with my American friend had been a bear hug. The second was picking him up like this. You'd think I'd at least buy him dinner first, I thought with a small laugh. I was one of those people who tend to crack jokes when in danger to keep up everyone's spirits, my own included.

"Now, stay in the middle of the group so ya don't getcher self snatched up by a Smoker or nothin'," Ellis instructed as we shuffled single-file through the hall. I nodded again, and we were out the door.

"Get it closed!" Nick snarled.

I ran to the couch and set Cry down before hurrying back to the saferoom door. Arms snaked through the door, squirming and twisting to grab at us. Even more arms slid through the bars on the door. They found purchase in hair and on shoulders.

"A little help?" Nick spat at me. He, Coach, Ellis, and Rochelle all had their full weights pressed against the door, but with the addition of the arms blocking the door from closing it wasn't enough to outmatch the horde on the other side.

A quick glance told me there wasn't enough room on our side of the door for me to be able to push, so instead I grabbed the axe from the ground where Ellis had dropped it. I swung it forward, chopping two of the dozen or so arms that wiggled through the door clean off.  
A few more hacks and they were gone. The door slammed shut with the force of four bodies. Everyone sighed with relief. The monsters were still out there, trying uselessly to grab at us through the spaces in the metal bars, but we were safe. The axe in my hand clattered to the floor, no longer needed.

"Damn Boomers," Coach grumbled, wiping some of the reeking green ooze from his cheek.

"They're like obese ballerinas," Ellis muttered.

Nick gave him a funny look. "What?"

I walked back to the couch, the conversation about Boomers and ballerinas fading into the background as I looked Cry over. He was still out cold. I leaned over him and pushed a stray strand of light brown hair from his maskless face. To be honest, he was kind of a pretty guy; heart-shaped lips set in a slight frown and a slender, feminine face with long eyelashes twitching with movement. Was he dreaming? What about?

A hand clamping down on my shoulder interrupted my thoughts. I looked over to see Ellis smiling down at me, the Boomer conversation apparently cut short. I let my inner fanboy squeal a little at the contact. Out of all the characters in all the video games I'd played, Ellis was the most relatable. For me, anyway. Not the Savannah, Georgia born and raised mechanic aspect of him, though. No, it was the way he could smile through all the situations he was put through in the game. He was the sweet one, the funny one, the talkative one, and the easily distracted one, but he fought hard for the ones he loved. If they were down, he'd be there to pick them up and dust them off.

It's funny how much you can learn about someone just through watching them in a video game.

Funnier, though, was the way I could see all of that shining in his very real eyes as he grinned down at me.

"Thank yew for the help back there," he said simply. "You saved our behinds." I returned his grin until a harsh voice cut in.

"Yeah, except if he and Sleepy over here hadn't come along we wouldn't be back here in the first place." The white-suited man sauntered over to the armchair opposite of me, and I winced. Thanks for ruining the moment, Nick, I thought bitterly.

"You didn't have to ruin the moment, Nick," Ellis snipped. Huh, great minds think alike, I guess.

"The hell I didn't! We nearly got killed back there!"

"Bullshit! We were fine. Look around you, Nick. Does anyone even look hurt?"  
Nick stood in stony silence. He knew the answer just as well as the rest of us.

Well, the rest of us minus Cry. I looked at my friend again. His frown had deepened. His eyes were no longer moving so rapidly, but his brow was furrowed. What was happening in his subconscious?

I heard Nick clear his throat and looked over. He sat in the armchair, face as blank as Cry's mask, but eyes revealing that he had the upper hand and knew it. A milder form of that fanboy sensation from earlier swirled in my chest when I looked into Nick in the eyes, but it was quickly lost to the fire I saw in them.

"Now do you want to tell me why your friend knew Ellis and me by name?"

I froze up. I knew he'd be asking questions, but I'd been expecting Cry to be awake to answer them for me.

What was I supposed to say? The truth certainly wouldn't work. 'Oh, you guys are characters in a video game called Left 4 Dead. 2, actually. You're not in the first one, just the sequel. It's this FPS game where you play campaigns and kill zombies while trying to survive! Now I don't know how the hell we got in here, but we did. Ta-da.' The thought of explaining that to them was almost laughable.

"And what's Left 4 Dead?"

Oh. When had he heard about that? Well, that certainly narrowed down my options.

"Uhhh…" Oh, great start, Pewds. Real great. "We heard you. All of you... You were talking and we heard names. See, we were holed up in a different house. We were roommates before all this. We went in that house," I motioned towards where they'd found Cry and I locked in the closets, "to look for supplies before you guys could. It was the last house on the street we hadn't searched, and we got locked, um, in… closets." I looked to the ground and nodded at my shoes. "And, uh, Left 4 Dead. It's this game that we played a lot this whole situation reminds me of." Well, at least the last part was true.

"Okay. Now this time, why don't you tell me the truth?" Nick asked calmly.

"Because I can't." I shrugged.

"I think you will." His words were accompanied by a faint 'click', which I looked up to see was one of his pistols aimed squarely at my face.

"Nick," Ellis warned. "What the hell, man. Put it down."

"Why should I? Ellis, these two know us by name. They know what kind of gun you use. And those were the things they let slip when they were being careful. Who knows what else they know about us?"

I don't know why I said it.

I really don't know why I said it.

Maybe it was because some tiny, stupid part of my brain thought it would intimidate them to some extent. Maybe the gun being pointed in my face was scrambling up my thoughts.  
But for whatever reason, I took in a deep breath and caught Nick's shining green eyes with my own blue ones. I smirked slightly, and he actually looked a little surprised by my sudden change of demeanor. Well, there was something, maybe the only thing, we shared in common.

Then, with my voice just above a whisper and a challenge in my eyes, I said, "I know everything."

He pulled the trigger.

* * *

**A/N: Yikes, another cliffy! Sorry guys! *is not sorry***

**So I won't be writing for the next few days. Christmas season and all. Happy holidays!**

**UPDATE 2/6/13:**

**Ah.. Oops. A few days is turning into a few months. Am I allowed to say this is on hiatus? Yes? Okay. I'll try to get back into this soon. I don't know why I went for a chapter fic. I'm awful at continuing a story for a long time. Lack of motivation and blah blah blah. One-shots from now on. **


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